


One Helluva Secret

by AshesTheTerrible



Category: Borderlands
Genre: Drinking, Enemies to Lovers, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Frantic Sex, Secret Relationship, Sexual Content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-22
Updated: 2016-09-22
Packaged: 2018-08-16 18:40:24
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8113195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AshesTheTerrible/pseuds/AshesTheTerrible
Summary: If there is one thing that the Siren and the Commando are good at, it's butting heads. If there is something to fight about, they damn sure will find it. If one didn't know better it could be said that they actually hate one another. Though...that isn't exactly the case when behind closed doors...





	

**Author's Note:**

> Another self indulgent story to fill my need for more Axton/Maya content. Enjoy!

The ex-soldier was fairly certain his tired eyes had never beheld a more gorgeous sight. She stood tall and welcoming against the backdrop of the filth ridden streets of Sanctuary. She was a familiar spectacle to a pair of weary, red tinged orbs. After being assaulted with treacherous gusts of dust filled air for the better part of the day she was a right welcome view that he desperately needed. She was old, but you know what they say, with age came beauty and maybe even some wisdom if you were lucky. She of course, was fortunate enough to be dealt a hand that included both. 

She was a mighty thing and the years had made her cunning and cheeky. She’d seen many in her time here. She’d hosted even more in the belly of her breast. She’d served too many to make into an accurate documentation that was for certain. She’d had men and women, she’d had those down on their luck and those bathing in wealth. She’d had men that looked like dogs and men that looked like models. She’d had many at one time and god did she ever know how to handle it. She took them all inside of her like her body was always made for such a task. 

Her entrance was ready and inviting, just begging to take the war-worn mercenary inside. 

Her concrete structure bore the stains of a world that was anything but kind. Her front steps wore the discolored spots where some of her customers hadn’t been able to hold their liquor and had lost it all over the sturdy stairwell. 

But the best of her aspects flashed true and bright as it always did. 

A massive neon sign that pulsed with the old girl’s title hung there, proud and as red as a good pair of lacey undergarments. 

_ Moxxi’s. _

Axton’s shoulders fell just slightly as the bar’s front entrance reared up before him in the most welcoming of ways. 

Faced with the building to his front the exhaustion of the hellacious day he’d endured seemed to lighten just a bit. But a bit was better than nothing he supposed. He’d take what he could get at this point honestly. 

He could almost taste the cool, hoppy, golden liquid of a bottle of Rakk Ale on his tongue already. 

Salvador flanked his side closely, the small man rambling on about this and that, recollecting the events of their mission. His thick chuckle enveloped Axton’s ears as the stocky man reminisced about how he’d managed to blow a psycho’s head clean off with a rocket launcher. 

A small grin tugged at the corner of the commando’s stoic expression. 

That had been one hell of a kill. 

The poor sap had never known what hit him. 

Leave it to Sal to hit a moving target out of the back of a Technical.

“Oi took my load right to the face.” Salvador chuckled heartily, following the commentary up with a rude hand motion and a jerk of his hips. 

Axton barked out a laugh and slugged Sal in the shoulder hard. 

Nomatter the day he’d had, he’d always get a good laugh out of a sexual joke. 

“Even gotta pretty piece of metal off him.” Sal continued as he un-holstered a decent looking Maliwan SMG from his belt. 

The short man ran a meaty palm over the clip of the gun before scrunching his brows together and spitting onto the weapon then rubbing off a particularly stubborn bloodstain. He grinned wide as the gun shimmered in the low sunlight and his reflection in the polished metal greeted him. 

Axton snorted in disagreement and Sal’s expression quickly dropped into an un-amused glare. 

“I’ve seen skags shit out better weapons than that hunk of garbage.” Axton grunted, his grin taunting and cheeky. 

Salvador seemed to clutch the SMG just a little tighter, almost in a defensive fashion. 

“Eres tan estupido como un perro.” Salvador muttered before hocking and spitting into the dirt to his left. 

Axton planted his elbow into Sal’s shoulder hard, leaning his weight awkwardly on the shorter man. 

“Mmm you know I like it when ya talk dirty to me in Spanish sweetheart.” Axton purred teasingly. 

Salvador shoved the blonde man away with a scoff and a roll of his beady little eyes.

“Don’t flatter yourself Pendejo.” Sal snorted. “Your ass aint fat enough for me to be slinging sweet nothins to you cabrone.” 

Axton erupted in deep belly laughter and shook his head. 

“Why don’t you two just kiss already huh?” Came Gaige’s high pitched tenor from directly behind the two vault hunters. 

The red haired teen skipped ahead of them and bent forward, offering up a taunting set of wet kissing noises accompanied with pursed lips and a scrunched nose.

“Yeah Sal, why don’t we? Here, I’ll pull my pants down and you can plant a big wet one right on my ass.” Axton snarled with a jovial grin. 

“I’d rather try to go stick my tongue down a Thresher’s throat than get my mouth anywhere near your hairy ass amigo.” Salvador retorted with a chortle. 

Gaige screeched with laughter and bolted ahead of the rest of the slow moving band, but not before very gently clutching her fingers around the big wrist of the only psycho any of them ever cared to share their company with. 

Krieg mumbled something indecipherable beneath his breath but loyally followed the overly eccentric girl without a fuss. They often times referred to the redhead as the derailed man’s keeper. She seemed to be the only one that could correctly interpret the towering psycho’s animalistic ranting. She could take a series of grunts, growls and bellowing about rib cages being ripped out and make them into a coherent sentence that the others could easily understand. Axton had yet to fully comprehend it and half of him really didn’t want to. But as long as the young woman kept the creature that Krieg was happy and calm then Axton didn’t much care either way. 

Axton watched with tired curiosity as Gaige tugged Krieg’s arm toward the bar’s entrance, babbling on about whatever random train of thought came into the station that was her little head. He shrugged his shoulders up and instead focused back on the way his boots dragged over the dusty soil of the Sanctuary streets. His feet felt about fifty times heavier than they’d been when the day had started and he was beginning to regret even coming out for their traditional celebratory drinks at Moxxi’s. 

A date with his sheets sounded almost as good. 

But he dare not look like a goddamned old man who turned in at nine o’ clock. 

And he never threw out an opportunity to drink Salvador under the table that was for damned certain. 

The commando stole a glance over his shoulder, his eyes resting on the two vault hunters bringing up the rear of the misfit little band. 

Zer0’s armor was scuffed and splattered with unknown substances. It could have been blood, spit, snot or mud…maybe all of the above. They floated along behind their counterparts, their feet barely touching the ground. It was almost painfully beautiful just the way the strange assassin moved. They never just ‘walked’. They always had to make a goddamned show of it. 

Axton frowned slightly and took note of his own lumbering, slightly limping, excuse for a pace. 

That mask wearing alien was making him look like a goddamned gorilla with the way they tiptoed across the sand. 

Axton harrumphed to himself and did his best not to dwell on it. 

He had an excuse after all. He’d been pretty much bent over and spanked into submission by an Ultimate Badass Goliath and it had been an experience he’d soon like to erase from his memory. 

Reason two as to why he was determined to drag his sorry carcass to the bar instead of to bed. After a good six beers being tossed into a building by that hulking rage machine would be a smear in his foggy brain. 

Keeping pace with the much taller, armor clad vault hunter was the last of their merry little group. She seemed to be listening intently to Zer0 explain how they’d managed the long range shot that had taken the Goliath down. 

Axton felt a twinge of displeasure twist down in his gut over the entire ordeal. 

The great beast had made an utter fool of him and had turned him into a living ragdoll all while Zer0 had taken it down with a single headshot. 

And Maya was listening with full, starry eyes as the assassin unveiled every detail, in painstaking haikus of course. 

Axton grit his teeth up. 

He did his best to convince himself he wasn’t jealous. No. Not one bit. 

Well maybe a smidge. 

He quickly turned his attention toward the steps now laid out before him in silent greeting. He figured nursing his wounds with alcohol would do the trick. 

The innards of the establishment were shrouded in deep purples and reds, the heavy fog of cigarette smoke immediately assaulting Axton’s senses. Even the way that the room burned his nostrils was a welcome reprieve. 

He’d spent too long out on the Pandoran wasteland that was for damned sure. They’d been out running a mission for Roland that had started with a simple hostage situation. It had ended with blowing up one of Jack’s eridium mines and a week camping out in the badlands in shacks and technicals. Axton’s back was still in knots from all the nights spent sleeping on the goddamned floor. He had more bruises and bumps than he ever cared to count and a nasty gouge across his right shoulder that he was pretty sure he needed to get checked out by Zed at some point. The thing was starting to smell. At least he was fairly certain it was the wound, at this point he couldn’t be one hundred percent sure…it could have just been him that carried the rotten odor. He hadn’t had a proper shower in a full week and really a quick dip in one of the rivers veining across the face of Pandora was not enough to wash  _ the entire _ stench off his being. 

Axton’s heavy boots thudded across the hardwood floor beneath him as his eyes adjusted to the dimly lit environment. The ex-soldier dug into the depth of his back pocket and clapped some wadded bills down onto the worn bar with a heavy sound. 

The smile that followed the monetary offering was slow and easy. 

She and Axton both knew it was far too much cash for what he was about to order, but the commando was not one to short change his favorite bartender. 

“Watcha havin’ handsome?” Moxxi nearly purred as she leaned her elbows on the countertop and cocked her head to the side. 

She knew the answer to that of course. Axton  _ always  _ ordered the same thing after all. 

He was nothing if not a creature of habit. 

“Same as always Mox.” Axton grunted out, his thin lips curling up into a peevish grin that was both tired but incredibly grateful that he was this close to finally getting his lips around the drink he so much needed. 

Moxxi nodded in understanding and turned to sashay to the far end of the bar, plucking a fresh, cold Rakk Ale out of the cooler. 

Axton exhaled slowly, his shoulders dropping as the brunette haired woman sauntered back to where the vault hunter stood and popped the cap off on the lip of the bar with a certain well practiced elegance that could pretty much have been considered an art. The bottle cap rolled with a metallic sound before circling to a stop a few inches away. Moxxi slid the beverage to the big man with a glint of thanks in her eyes as she scooped up his money and tucked it away in her cleavage. She never asked where the money came from, pretty much all cash on Pandora was taken off of dead bodies or stolen out of back pockets. All that mattered was that it kept this bar alive and the pretty woman’s wallet fat. 

“Thanks darlin’.” Axton grunted as he tilted the bottle to his thin lips and took a long swallow. 

The liquid was like cool gold as it slid down his gullet and hit heavy in his gut. It was dark and strong, just the way he preferred it. He took his mouth away with an indulgently wet sound and wiped a small dribble of excess from his stubble ridden chin. 

“I swear the beers are always better here. Dunno whatcha do to em Mox, but they always taste better under your roof.” Axton complimented with a satisfied sigh. 

Moxxi smiled slowly, her heavily painted lips upturning in amusement at the praise. She liked the commando. He was rough around the edges, but on this planet who wasn’t? Despite his cocky nature and his glory hound attitude, he had a kindness down in him that even Pandora couldn’t beat out of the man. An old-world chivalry that still clung to his deepest depths. She had a keen eye on the young man ever since the commando had ended up in Sanctuary trying his luck at the business of hunting down vaults and going up against Handsome Jack himself. If she’d had her way she would have loved to get the sandy haired man alone, but he seemed near invincible to her regular antics. Temptation that would have had any of her normal targets falling all over themselves for her didn’t seem to shake the ex-soldier in the slightest. 

Moxxi had a good hunch as to why. 

Her intelligent eyes flicked up to the new occupants of the bar. 

A slight grin crossed her lips and she dropped her weight onto one hip. 

She knew when a man had eyes for someone. 

Axton was suddenly aware of a presence behind him, the approach meeting its end as the blue haired woman made herself at home in the space next to Axton’s much larger form. 

She daintily stuffed a wad of cash into the tip jar and smiled fondly at Moxxi. 

“A whiskey on the rocks please.” Maya said with a sigh. 

Clearly she needed a drink as much as her counterpart and she wasn’t messing around with anything less than the hard stuff that made home on Moxxi’s middle shelf. Moxxi poured the amber liquid over ice and slid it to the awaiting siren, who clutched the drink in immense appreciation. 

Maya’s eyes flicked to the commando who drained the last of his first beer and Moxxi was already delivering him one to replace it. 

“Do you ever drink anything other than Rakk Ale?” Maya snorted giving the man a playful glance. 

Axton took a well-deserved swig and clunked the bottle down on the wet bar. 

“Nope” He replied with a small smile. 

Maya chuckled and took a sip of her strong drink, the ice cubes clinking together in a pretty little serenade. Her lips formed around the rim of the glass, leaving behind traces of blue when she set the little thing back down on the bar. Axton watched her take the drink of whiskey, his eyes full of intrigue. He quickly dropped his eyes as her gaze treaded back over to his form. 

“So you done discussing perfect headshots with the long shot master or what?” Axton mumbled grumpily. 

Maya knitted her brows together and gave the commando a curious expression. 

“Oh. Did the big bad commando get his ego bruised because someone else took the Goliath down while you were getting thrown through a wall?” Maya teased as she rested her chin in the cup of her palm. 

Axton merely grunted in response.

“I had it under control.” Axton muttered. 

“Oh did you? I couldn’t really tell with the way that Goliath was making you its bitch. Though all that dirt that you ate sure did look tasty I have to admit.” Maya grinned. 

Axton frowned deeper and chugged the rest of his second beer. 

His buzz was not coming on fast enough to deal with this crap. 

“Someone’s kind of a pissbaby tonight huh?” Maya giggled with a roll of her eyes. 

The slender woman rested her palm on the commando’s shoulder, squeezing gently in a fashion that was not their normal vicious teasing, and definitely did not go along with the insults she was slinging. If anybody on the team was going to butt heads over  _ anything  _ it was the commando and the siren. It seemed there was no place that they would rather be than at each other’s throats. The rest of the team had simply accepted that the two really couldn’t stand each other on most days and tolerated each other at the very best. And so in conclusion any type of gentle touch between the two had Moxxi secretly smiling behind the bar. 

Her hunches were never wrong. 

Axton flinched at the touch from the siren’s hand, her fingers finding his agitated wound by complete lucky accident. Maya drew back her hand as the commando hissed and clutched at his angered shoulder. Maya’s eyes were confused and apologetic as they darted over the commando in search of explanation. 

“Some glass got me good when that stupid sunnovabitch threw me through the window. Think it’s infected or sumthin’. Hell I dunno.” Axton grunted, his ego clearly still damaged as he refused to look in the siren’s direction. 

Maya shot the man a frustrated glare and grabbed him by the wrist, uttering a small “Come on” that was anything but a suggestion. Axton grabbed at his beer and reluctantly allowed the siren to drag him across the room to a booth situated just next to the bar where their comrades sat. She forced the commando into the seat and entered his personal space with little warning. 

Axton watched her with a stubbornly tight expression.

“Take your jacket off.” Maya commanded sternly. 

“Why-…” Axton began to argue but the siren abruptly cut him short.

“Don’t argue you stubborn bastard just take it off.” Maya snarled.

Axton shrugged out of his jacket in a less than amused fashion, wincing when the material slid over the festered wound. 

“Alright, alright baby blue, didn’t know you wanted to get me out of my clothes that badly.” Axton scoffed. 

“You should ask nicely next time baby. Then maybe I’ll do more than just take it off…” Axton smirked, his lazy eyes settling on the siren peevishly. 

The blue haired woman pressed her thumb against the side of the commando’s jagged wound, getting a choked hiss of displeasure from the big man. 

“ _ Christ woman _ …” Axton growled through his teeth.

Maya huffed at the slight ooze emanating from the angry wound and immediately went for the bag strapped tight to her waist. She rummaged through the small pack until finally she came away with her prize. Before Axton could protest she popped the plastic tip off of a hypo syringe and stabbed the thing into the meat just above his wound. Axton bellowed out a low sound and slammed his fist on the table as the searing pain of the healing injection ripped through his muscle. 

“Goddammit you coulda warned me!” Axton barked through clenched teeth. 

“If I had warned you, you would have put up a fight. I know how you get around needles.” Maya huffed as she put the empty syringe back in her side bag. 

Axton’s expression was not far off from a defeated pout as he shot the woman the best pained glare he could muster.

“Well forgive me for not likin’ a big ol rod of metal bein’ shoved into my arm…” Axton snarled lowly.

At that point Salvador swung around on his barstool, addressing the two vault hunters in the booth a few feet from him.

“Maybe you shoulda shoved it up his ass, he woulda liked that better.” Salvador sneered as he drained his glass of some cheap off-world Tequila that Axton could practically smell even with the distance between them.

“Real cute Sal.” Axton growled darkly as he gently rubbed at the needle pricked skin.

He couldn’t complain too much, the hypo had already begun its job as it smarted and tingled beneath the wounded flesh. The stuff was about as potent as all hell and he was fairly certain it might just give them all cancer in the long run…but for the moment it was easing the ache in his shoulder and lulling him into a relaxed state.

“Thanks.” Axton nearly spat at the blue haired woman as he tipped his drink to his waiting lips and took several swallows, his Adams apple bobbing with the motion.

“Don’t mention it. You’re no good to me dead.” Maya retorted as she gently rocked her drink, watching the melting ice dance back and forth.

“Huh. That’s news to me darlin’. Didn’t know you cared.” Axton huffed quietly.

“Oh don’t flatter yourself.  Most days your turret is more useful than you are. ” Maya snorted.

The corner of Axton’s lip twitched up in an amused little grin.

“That’s why she’s my better half sweetheart. Little lady makes up for all my flaws.” Axton boasted with a sarcastic sense of pride.

“I don’t think anything could make up for  _ all  _ of your flaws.” Maya replied with a roll of her pretty grey eyes.

Axton whistled lowly and slumped slightly in the bench seat, stretching his legs out despite the ache that ran rampant through them.

“Phew baby you sure are mean today.” Axton said as he fiddled with peeling the paper label off his empty beverage.

The commando leaned in close to the siren, a devious little glint hiding in his emerald eyes.

“Is it that time of the month sweetheart?” Axton cooed in a low, mocking fashion.

Maya’s lip upturned in utter displeasure.

“Well isn’t that the most sexist thing I’ve heard all day.” Maya cooed sweetly.

“Another comment like that and I will phase lock your balls clean off loverboy.” Maya followed up before draining what was left of her drink.

Maya sighed out and tapped her empty glass on the table before them.

“I need another drink if I’m going to have to sit next to your idiotic ass.” She mumbled before getting up and heading toward the bar.

Axton thrust his arms out wide in a taunting fashion.

“There’s a whole mess of other seats darlin’ you sat here! I didn’t make you.” Axton jeered.

The siren stopped for a moment to throw out a half assed frown in the commando’s direction then continued her journey.

“Get me a beer would you sweetie? It’s the least you can do after jabbing me with big thing of yours. Didn’t even take me to dinner first.” Axton hollered louder than what was really needed.

Maya noticeably bristled at the commando’s commentary but did not offer him another glance.

Axton draped his thick arms across the back of the booth seat and closed his eyes for an indulgent moment.

“You know she’s probably going to kill you in your sleep now.” Gaige giggled as she nursed her beer giddily.

It was something light with low alcohol content of course, the girl was too tiny to really handle any more than that. None of them really even knew if she was old enough to be drinking…but they all pretty much came to the conclusion that if you were old enough to murder, you were old enough to drink.

Axton cracked one eye open and coughed out a small chuckle.

“Yeah probably.” He responded with a shrug of his shoulders.

Maya returned with two drinks in hand, setting the commando’s beer down just a little firmer than what was really necessary. He wrapped his big palm around the neck of the beverage and suckled the dark beer greedily.

“Thanks baby.” Axton said with a wink and blew a mocking kiss in the siren’s direction.

Maya merely rolled her eyes in response and took a large draw of her drink.

The other vault hunters were deep in a roaring conversation that had Salvador laughing so hard he sounded more like a skag with a punctured lung than a human anymore. Krieg was showing his enthusiasm for the conversation by screaming about tearing flesh from bone, which Axton only figured meant that the psycho was excited. Salvador, Gaige and Krieg were loud enough to really swallow up the hum of the bar, the three fondly reminiscing over the best aspects of their mission. Mostly just the very gory details of their favorite kills and occasional mention of the sweet loot they’d collected off their victims’ dead carcasses. Zer0 really just lingered off to the side, listening and observing, every once and awhile putting in their very poetic two cents. They weren’t drinking of course, they never did. Something about alcohol dulling their ability to make clean kills, which was undeniably a very Zer0 thing to do.

Axton thudded his head against the tattered cushion of the booth, some of its yellow interior poking out in the places where material had been torn away. He felt just about like the cushion looked. Beaten, bruised and overworked.

Maya drummed her slender fingers against the side of her glass, her eyes focused straight ahead in almost a trance like state.

“You rake in any good loot?” She asked suddenly.

The commando’s eyes parted slowly, his tired pupils drawling over the familiar form of his fellow vault hunter.

“Got a good machine gun. Kinda wild but y’know Bandits always are.” Axton grunted before closing his eyes once more.

Maya nodded slowly, her attempt at small talk having gone nowhere quickly.

“You look like you’re about to keel over dead.” Maya said in a deadpan tone.

Axton shrugged his shoulders up and snorted under his breath.

“Just waitin’ on that sweet release of death darlin’. Then you don’t have to deal with my stubborn ass anymore.” Axton said with a pained grin.

Maya chuckled and shook her head slowly.

“Where’s the fun in that?” She said quietly.

With that Axton turned his head lazily to look at the siren with weary orbs.

His grin was tired, yet victorious.

“Ah, gunna be nice to me now huh?” Axton chuckled as he scratched at the stubble of his chin.

Maya’s lips curled into a shy little smile that went unnoticed to everybody within the bar’s confines…except the commando.

Her eyes traveled over her now empty glass, the glossy cubes being the only remnants left of the beverage.

“I think I’m going to turn in for the night.” She said with a long sigh.

Axton nodded from his slumped position against the seat and hefted himself upright with a great amount of effort. The siren watched with curious eyes as he slung his heavy jacket back over his shoulders and zipped it up carefully.

“Need some company on the way back? My bed is callin’ my name.” Axton groaned as he stretched his large arms out in front of him.

Maya shrugged and nodded.

“I guess so.” She replied.

She was frankly too tired to oppose the commando tagging along with her back to headquarters.

Maya announced their departure to the others, who seemed to have no intentions of leaving anytime soon and then the siren’s boots were carrying her out the door. The music boomed behind her as she exited the old building, fading into a pulsing thing that got lost off into the night as she put distance between her and it.

Axton lumbered behind her at an uneven pace, the soreness down in his calves giving him hell and a half as he forced his body into motion.

“Sunnovabitch I’m either getting’ too old for this shit or Pandora is getting’ meaner.” The commando complained gruffly as he grimaced down at his sore legs.

Maya chuckled with amusement and threw a playful glance to her counterpart.

“What’s wrong old man? Can’t take a beating like you used to?” Maya teased lightly.

Axton only grunted in response.

“Yeah well this damned planet is getting better at punishment and I think she forgot my safe word.” Axton muttered stretching out his back in a feeble attempt to work some of the kinks out.

Maya snorted and folded her arms across her front.

Axton grinned at the small amount of laughter he’d managed to wrangle from the siren and flanked the woman’s left.

The night was still and quiet, save for the muffled sounds of laughter and music from the bar and the occasional conversation being had in a back alley. It wasn’t like Sanctuary was the cleanest of places, or the safest, but it was better than the wilds of Pandora. Here at least there was less of a chance that someone might shoot you in the back.

Maya tilted her head back, eyes settling on the massive floating space station in the sky, the large ‘H’ glowering brighter than even Elpis itself.

“Whaddya think it’s like up there?” Maya asked suddenly, more to herself than directing the question at her company.

Axton looked skyward with a thoughtful grunt.

“I’m gunna take a wild guess and say a lot of the interior is yellow.” Axton sneered.

Maya giggled, her lips pulling back over pearly teeth in a completely gorgeous smile. Axton immediately found himself more interested in that lovely little grin of hers’ than the extravagant space station interrupting the evening sky.

“With Handsome Jack’s face plastered over everything.” Maya joked.

Axton chuckled.

“You think that guy jerks it to his own posters?” Axton said deviously.

Maya made a gagging sound and shoved Axton’s good shoulder playfully.

“Most definitely.” She replied with a nod of her head.

Silence draped over the two counterparts as they continued through the old streets, their shoes kicking up the warm dust in lazy little clouds that formed around their feet. The neon lights from Marcus’ shop flickered and threw brilliant colors across the dirt, shadows of Sanctuary residents flashing through the glow. Lights burned dully in dirty windows, some having gone dark as the owners had turned in for the night. There was the occasional cry of a faraway rakk circling high above the pitiful little city.

It was a lonely, mournful sound as it drifted down and kissed at the commando’s ears.

Axton grimaced.

Nasty leather winged sky rats were all that they were. He hated most animals on this hellhole of a planet but rakk held a special kind of disgust in his heart. Nothing like getting clawed to ribbons by a swarm of those great beasts.

His attention was once again captured by Maya’s slender form, her motions graceful and easy as she walked next to him. Her hair was a mess with dried blood and clumped mud, her pants stained darker in areas than their normal navy blue. But she didn’t much seem to mind the grime, or at least she didn’t show it much. She never seemed too bothered by the rough nights sleeping in nothing but rotting shacks that smelled like skag shit. Nor did she seem to blink an eye at the less than nutritional meals they had to scrounge up when out on missions. She was tougher than any soul Axton had ever known and she made this life on Pandora look like a cake walk. She took it head on, with utter elegance and sophistication.

Crimson Raider headquarters was better than any rundown shack, but it certainly was no five star hotel. Regardless it had running water that was  _ almost  _ warm and beds that were relatively clean. Both of which Axton was understandably excited for.

The siren pried the front door open and peered inside the dim room. She flicked on the lights, the overhead bulb pulsing and humming dangerously. Often the lower level of headquarters was left dim and abandoned while Roland and the others mostly took up residence on the top floor.  

Maya sighed and headed to her assigned bunk. That was all they got, just a bunk, not even a room. But it was again better than nothing. The siren tugged out a trunk of clothes from beneath her tidy bottom bed and popped it open before collecting a bundle of fresh clothes and some shampoo that she always ordered special from Crazy Earl. She never allowed the others to use it either, which was why it was kept safely locked in her personal trunk at all times. Pandora makes you strange about little things like that. It forced you to hoard the objects like they were made of gold. For Axton it was a certain brand of cologne that was a rarity here on the border planet. He guarded that little bottle like his very life depended on it. Plus the shit was strong enough to cut even the strongest of scents…like stalker piss. Something Axton had found out the hard way.

“Dibs on the shower.” Maya said bluntly as she slammed the box closed and kicked it back under her bed.

Axton grunted and rolled his eyes at her before leaving her be, opting to take a quick trip upstairs. His boots thudded up the wooden steps tiredly, his eyes peering curiously around the corner. The control room proved empty, vacant of its usual occupants. Axton’s gaze stalled on the precarious lump splayed out over the rickety couch to his left. A lump that proved to be Mordecai, who was fast asleep, a trail of empty bottles of booze left on the floor beside the old furniture. Seemed that the sniper was the only one keeping watch over Headquarters and he was doing a piss poor job of it.

Perfect.

Axton took his leave with far more care to be as quiet as possible upon his descent down the steps.

The commando rushed to his own bunk, clambering to scoop up fresh garments before following the long hallway to the single bathroom at the far end. 

Axton wrapped on the door three times with the back of his knuckles and waited.

“Yes?” Came a muffled voice from inside.

“It’s me.” Axton hissed lowly.

The door came open just a crack, grey orbs peering out at him curiously. Maya yawned the old wood open the rest of the way and stood there with one hand rested on the knob and the other planted on her hip.

“What do you want?” She sighed.

“Mordecai’s keepin watch. He’s passed out drunk on the couch as usual.” Axton said with a boyish grin as he leaned his elbow on the doorframe.

A bright, wily smile spread across the young woman’s lips, the expression nice and slow, like molasses on a cold day. In one quick motion Maya curled her fingers beneath the collar of Axton’s echo device and tugged not so gently. Axton’s feet stuttered forward and he nearly fell into the bathroom before him.

“Then c’mere soldier boy.” Maya snarled as she pulled Axton inside and the commando slammed the door behind him.

Axton’s heavy arms encircled the slighter woman without reserve. Like two grenades having suddenly combusted they came together in a violent display of what could loosely be defined as affection. The commando’s weight shoved the siren into the little bathrooms’ terribly papered wall, the ugly designs of faded flowers having been scratched away here and there. Maya let go of a feminine gasp as her fingers tugged at any part of the commando that she could get a hold of. Ultimately she grasped the back of his disgusting uniform, the thick material feeling stiff with dirt and sweat.

His mouth hesitantly found hers’, pausing for a moment before melding together.

It had been  _ so long _ .

It had been  _ too damn long. _

Maya forced into the kiss hard and insistent, like she simply wanted to swallow the man whole. Axton hummed against her lips as his tongue explored the hollows of her maw eagerly. She tasted like cheap whiskey, the kind that Axton absolutely despised. As much as he hated whiskey, he couldn’t get enough of the way it tasted on her. Something thick, something sharp, and something  _ fierce. _

In not so many moments the commando’s strong arms were taking the siren up off the floor, her legs instinctively wrapping around the breadth of his wide hips. Her shoulder blades dug into the dirty wall to her back, but her hands, mouth and mind were all far too busy to pay it any concern. The sandy blonde’s massive thumbs found their favorite hold on the divots of the young woman’s hip bones. His grip was steady and stern as it held her firm. The power struggle that they normally danced to the beat of was not lost in the private moment being had behind the closed bathroom door.

Axton’s mouth traveled a frantic path down the slope of the blue haired woman’s neck, pampering the pale flesh in enthusiastic nips and bites. She sighed into every press of his lips, her back bowing in a stunningly beautiful arch, her slender thighs tightening on familiar hips.

One of Axton’s wide palms pressed flat against the wall holding them both steady, while the other remained firm on the dip of the siren’s spine.  The commando nestled his nose behind her ear, huffing hot, beer laced breath against her sensitive anatomy. His mouth was warm as he took her susceptible lobe between his lips, clasping it gently with the fronts of his teeth.

The siren unraveled around him like a pretty package having finally had its ribbon undone. Her beautiful knot fell in boneless lengths as she allowed herself to sink into his advances.

Her slender fingers scraped along the blonde’s scalp as she tangled them in his short cropped locks. The sound that this action gathered up from the commando’s deepest depths painted a triumphant grin across her perfect lips.

It seemed such a strange thing, for them to exist like so.

Neither one of them had really bargained for such things really. Maya still wasn’t really certain as to what she needed to call this  _ thing  _ yet either. Sometimes she thought it might be something similar to what humans referred to as ‘love’ other times she assumed it to just be natural desire. Maybe it was as simple as just sexual urges that couldn’t be tamed without being carried out. She wasn’t exactly experienced when it came to things such as deciphering emotions and wants. Growing up in the abbey had aided her in developing that skill extremely late in life and often times she still fought with it.

All she knew is that when they went for long periods without…which had become the norm as of lately…her body only wanted it that much more. Like a starving skag that refused to be sated with simple table scraps. It needed a meal. A  _ full  _ meal.

The biting desire simply built and built, piling bricks on until it became a full structure capable of crippling her. Every small touch became something that had her catching fire. A brush of a hand, a touch to one’s shoulder, fingers colliding when handing off a gun…it all became nearly more than she could stand.

It had been a full week that the band of vault hunters had been off roaming the dilapidated lands of the Pandoran surface, which meant many nights with the entire team curled up in small sleeping arrangements. Often they ended up shoulder to shoulder with each other, arms splayed out over chests, legs sprawled in all directions. As much as the siren adored her mismatched little crew, it had been a constant test of just how long she could keep control for. She wasn’t proud of how easily she shattered with the weight of it.

The fifth night, as she’d lay awake in her sleeping bag, the need had come running and had gotten the better of her. It had been so dark beneath the old structure they’d sought refuge in for the night. It was most likely a trading post or storage shack of some sort back in its prime, but Pandora had not been kind, as she often was and the old thing stood in sad shape to say the least. Maya’s eyes had glistened in the low moonlight creeping through the ancient boards. She could hear loud snoring coming from across the room and she could immediately associate the sound with the gunzerker. After sleeping in close quarters with the other vault hunters for more nights than she cared to count she could identify each and every one just by their sounds of slumber. She wasn’t sure if that was pathetic or impressive.

She’d turned her head in the dark, not really being able to see much…but she knew who lay next to her just by the sound of his heavy breathing. The commando was mere inches from her, close enough that she could feel the tickle of his expel of breath on the length of her neck. Just that alone had the hairs on her arms standing at attention. She’d muffled back a small groan, swallowing the sound down in her throat. Her eyes had slid closed painfully slow and her mind had wandered away with itself. It had wandered to the dark parts that hosted all of her disgusting fantasies. All the things that hid in her shadowy corners. They all lurked into her bloodstream as her fingers had wandered between her thighs, the pads of her digits slipping beneath worn cotton panties and addressing her own wet heat just to beat back the hunger deep down in her gut.

She’d come to the thought of the commando’s tongue laving over her most sensitive areas, his green eyes peering up the length of her body in a sickly victorious way. The way he always looked as she came apart under his influences.

She’d kept her moans muffled by the cloth of the sleeping bag as she’d finished with her fingers nestled within her rosy folds.

She was jolted back from her wandering thoughts as the commando’s well practiced hands fumbled for the zipper of her bodysuit, desperate to get the material loose from her.

Maya pressed the heat of her mouth against the big man’s ear.

“I need you so fucking badly.” Maya snarled, her body careening gently against him.

Axton’s smile was malicious and playful as it broke across his square features.

“Oh I know darlin’.” He managed to ground out huskily. “Getting off beneath your sleeping bag, that’s new baby.”

Maya lent her partner her best impression of a glare, but his witty hands caressing her sides just weren’t allowing her to be anything but  _ pleasured. _

“You knew?” Maya choked out breathlessly.

“Of course I knew. Mmm listening to you try and force back those pretty little sighs and moans you make when you’re about to come, fuck it was downright cruel baby blue.” Axton groaned as his heavy hands peeled the siren’s bodysuit down.

Maya made a needy little sound as the man’s hungry tongue traced erratic patterns up her ample left breast, following the ringlets and twists of her brilliant markings.

“I was so fuckin’ hard…” Axton snarled as his teeth worried her nipple to erection, getting light gasps and hums from her diaphragm.

“Took everything in me not to just fuck you right there and then, not give a shit if the others heard or not.” He continued his tone low and dark.

Maya writhed in his grip.

“Quit talking and fuck me already.” Maya growled out impatiently.

Axton cocked a witty grin and gently clasped the young woman’s lower lip between his perfect teeth.

“Yes ma’m.” He chuckled.

Big digits made quick work of the clasps of her pants, shoving the material down in one impatient tug. The sound of the commando’s own zipper ripped through their gasps and pants for breath. There was nothing here but sheer eager nature. There was no time to fully undress. Their bodies couldn’t be bothered to waste that kind of time. The needs mounted within their bellies had grown into rabid things that were eating at their very bones. With the siren’s bodysuit clasp undone, it loosened the material just enough for the blonde to move it aside, talented fingers maneuvering her soft, over worn panties as well.

Maya felt all the breath leave her struggling lungs as the firm heat of her lover’s prominent erection slid against the apex of her thighs.

Her voice dropped to a low whisper, her lips nearly pressed against her partner’s.

“I need your big, fat cock inside me so badly.” She huffed, her tone dripping with poisonous temptation.

Axton’s knees nearly buckled as the words swam over him, stroking both his ego and his erection in one go.

“Where’d you learn such nasty language sweetheart?” Axton purred back teasingly.

Maya grinned peevishly.

“Picked it up from some gutter mouthed military man I met.” Maya sneered.

Axton laughed as he gently gathered the young woman’s mouth with his.

“He good lookin?” Axton teased as he pulled back slightly, his hips rocking against her slick heat tauntingly.

Maya’s face scrunched up into an expression of desperate need.

“Yeah. Real handsome. Kind of a cocky asshole though.” Maya managed to bark out halfheartedly, her hips pivoting as she fruitlessly attempted to accomplish more friction.

The corner of Axton’s mouth twitched upward in amusement.

The expression painted across his brow was nothing less than beastly, famished with desire and want for the young siren.

“I like your dirty mouth darlin’.” Axton whispered softly, the words mere ghosts as they encircled the siren’s senses.

Maya strained out a laugh.

The siren bucked her hips impatiently and a small whine found its way out from between her full lips. Axton seemed to drink in the needy sound with great enthuse, his pupils dark and fat with the onset of deep arousal.   

“Axton…” Maya snarled her tolerance wearing thin.

The commando merely chortled. The amusement he gathered from the siren bowing and reeling with impatience sent pleasant chills down the length of his spine.

He allowed his battle beaten jacket to fall to the bathroom floor with a heavy ‘thunk’. Maya’s lips crammed into his viciously, the blind whir of hands and mouths raging once more between them.

They groaned out in unison as Axton guided himself into the siren’s wet folds, his blunt head parting her ready rose with ease. Maya ducked her head and hissed out at the stretch as the commando made room for himself within her. His heavy cock pressed against her tight walls in all the right places, throwing the small flame in her abdomen into a full on blaze that was threatening to burn her entire being to the ground. Axton growled out a satisfied sound as he bottomed out within her, his cock encased in slick warmth that had his head spinning.

Suddenly he couldn’t grasp onto any one single thought, everything was racing with heat, with need, with earnestness. His thoughts were a tangled mess of loose ends, the commando unable to pick apart where one started and the other ended.

All that mattered in that breathless moment was the ecstasy coursing through him, and the way Maya was looking at him with full, fat, lust absorbed eyes.

“ _ Please…”  _ Maya hissed out through her clenched teeth.

It was downright unlike the young woman to ask nicely, giving away just how drunk she was on the moment at hand.

Axton’s lips were hot and heavy against hers’ as he held her firm, his hips snapping up into her tight heat like he had something to prove. There was no time for such things as foreplay. Maybe in some other lifetime where they had a bed to themselves and a night to share all alone in each other’s arms…but tonight was not that night. Here on Pandora such moments were so few and far between, you had to simply take what was offered and not complain. The week they had spent in such close contact without being able to relieve the constant itch they had for each other was foreplay enough.

Maya broke for breath, her bottom lip slightly swollen with the abuse from Axton’s teeth and she threw back her head in utter bliss. Her mouth hung open in a weak oval, panting out curses and prayers that were designed for some deities alter, but instead she opted to recite them feverishly to her lover instead. Her nails were digging into Axton’s not yet completely healed shoulder, but the sting was quickly pushed to the back of his brain as he fucked into the lithe woman.

She held onto the soldier like her very life depended upon it, letting go of several strings of high pitched moans. The commando’s thumb explored the meet of his partner’s thighs, his strong digit drawing well practiced circles over her swollen clit. The touch to the small bundle of nerves had the siren nearly crying out bloody murder and Axton had half a mind to hush her…but couldn’t find it in himself to do so.

It was too obscenely sweet to muffle her cries of absolute dripping ecstasy.

He was too selfish to stop her from crying his name out over and over again, each time louder and with more valor.

It wasn’t like there was much chance of them getting caught.

Mordecai was most likely passed out for the night from the looks of it and there was a good chance the others wouldn’t drag their drunken asses into headquarters until well into the night.

He just needed to hear her. He needed to feel her. He needed to  _ have  _ her.

The wet slap of skin reverberated between the two as their fucking became far more frantic and hurried, the familiar build of their finishes coming on quick and heavy. Maya wanted to be embarrassed with just how fast her impending orgasm was rushing to the apex of her being...but she just couldn't find it in her. Her stomach muscles tightened as the commando wrote out an eloquent novel over her need, knowing just the amount of pressure she liked and the speed to go with it. It was near sickening just how well the commando had learned her body. It was only homage to how many times they’d come together like this before.

It had all started quite by accident really, a night out on a mission alone a routine evening had gone awry the moment the siren had invited herself into his lap and he’d not pushed her away. That first kiss had awakened something dark and old within the rugged commando. A kind of emotion he’d thought to have buried long ago after his failed marriage and many other failed relationships. But that night it came crawling back, conforming itself into a living thing once more. It refused to be forgotten and tossed to the side as it nestled its way in-between the bones of Axton’s rib. She’d just looked so powerful and yet innocent as she’d run her fingers curiously through his short locks. He’d been star struck, feeling like he’d caught a good rocket launcher round to the gut.

He remembered the embarrassment in her normally confident tenor as she’d whispered to him that she’d never done this before.

He remembered the way she’d frowned at his hesitation after she’d uttered the words.

She’d touched his cheek, her eyes wide and curious, like some fragile animal even though she was anything but.

And then she’d said please.

Not in the way she had only moments previous in the current moment. That please was all confidence and demand…the please she’d uttered that night was different. It was nervous, it was excited, but most of all it was full of anticipation.

He couldn’t bring himself to say no.

He could close his eyes and relish in the memory of just how genuine his sentence had come forth from his lips.

“I’ll be gentle.”

And he had.

He’d treated her the way she deserved, slow, steady, caressing and kissing her when she flinched or showed the slightest discomfort. She’d been so delicate then…nothing like the animal she’d transformed into now. Now she was a hungry thing that simply couldn’t get her belly full enough to satisfy her stomach.

He honestly couldn’t decide which version he’d liked better.

His right palm clenched harder on her waist, dirty, ragged, fingernails digging into perfect porcelain skin mercilessly.

Her hands clasped in the mercenary’s off-white undershirt as she buried her face in the crook of his solid neck.  

“ _ Faster…”  _ She managed to breathe out demandingly.

Normally Axton was pretty much shit at taking orders from just about anybody, but when the siren barked a command at him there was nothing more he wanted than to appease her. His fingers traced her sensitive nerves quicker, his hips following the pace, getting obviously pleased sounds from Maya’s slack mouth.

Her eyes slid closed, hiding behind thick, dark lashes as she let the build of orgasm take her. Everything around her seemed to stop dead, her thundering heart the only thing she could possibly focus on. Axton was strong against her, her fingers gliding over his swells of muscle. He smelled like gunpowder and musky Pandoran soil. Two scents that invaded her nostrils in a way that was not entirely unpleasant. With her head tossed back and her hair slicked to her forehead, her finish finally crashed down upon her slighter form.

Every muscle in her lower half coiled tight, flexing and contracting with every pulsating wave of her orgasm. It was a warm and familiar combustion that she near lived for. All the tension of time apart came undone in several short seconds. It was so vibrant, so violent and so astronomically animalistic. Maya cried the soldier’s name without reserve, her voice echoing off the tiny bathroom walls shrilly.

Axton relished in the way she came alive for him, her body shuddering and bucking as she rode out her much needed release. Her body moved like a rolling wave, pressing against the wall of muscle to her front and boring down on her partner’s cock as he continued to pump into her.

It was primal, it was unbridled and it was beautifully raw.

Axton’s strong limbs held her steady as she hung against him, her arms looped lazily around his broad shoulders, small whines and hums of satisfaction coming forth from her throat. The commando kissed the side of her neck, huffing against the flushed skin as his own end crawled closer.

“I’m close.” He managed to groan against her earlobe.

Maya smiled tiredly and tilted her chin to place several slow, lethargic kisses along her lover’s jaw.

“Come for me…” She whispered lowly, her grin audible in her words.

Axton groaned into her, his hips relentless and his body simply falling to pieces. She was tight around him with her orgasm, only pushing him closer the conclusion of the secretive act they’d embarked upon. The big man pressed his forehead against Maya’s, his face contorted into a look of utter concentration and bliss. He breathed strangled phrases against her, his eyebrows knitted together tightly.

His grip tightened and his hips stilled before he was spilling into his lover’s core.

His cock flexed with each hard expulsion of pleasure, his body rolling into several lazy, halfhearted humps as he allowed his orgasm to take him. Maya’s fingers carded sleepily through his sandy locks, smiling victoriously as he panted breathy praises.

They stayed that way for what seemed like an eternity, tangled in each other, not wanting to break apart the moment just yet. It was too good not to enjoy the small sliver of time they had to exist like this.

Axton’s eyes parted ever so slowly, meeting with those tired, steely grey irises that he enjoyed ever so much. Moments like these were so far and few between, Axton felt the need to really soak in every single second. So often they were constantly keeping up the façade of their displeasure for each other. They had decided that it was best for them to keep such a secret to themselves. They were comrades, and comrades had to have level heads.

Whatever  _ this  _ was, it made them vulnerable.

And so, here they were…only colliding with such ferocity behind the shut door of the dirty little bathroom in Crimson Raider headquarters .

It wasn’t ideal, or laced with flowers and ribbon. Nothing on Pandora was. And so it was treated like the thing it was.

Sex.

And only sex.

No strings, or relationships attached to it.

A casual fuck, plain and simple.

At least that’s what the commando told himself over and over again.

The commando gently pulled himself from her slender body, a wet sensation rolling down the siren’s inner thigh with the motion. She sighed as the feeling of fullness left her, the tenor of her voice undeniably sated.

Maya groaned lowly as Axton lowered her body, her toes coming into contact with the cold, dingy tile of the flooring. She clutched onto the large man for balance, her legs feeling numb and weak, and so Axton’s fingers did not leave her hips. It was a tender motion, something that was so out of character for the normally brutish man that it caused an unwelcome flutter in the siren’s stomach.

Maya promptly ignored the feeling and offered her counterpart a small smile.

Axton returned the expression gently.

His eyes were soft as he looked upon her, in a way that made Maya’s cheeks warm. It was something relaxed, in a way that was not the norm for the rough commando.

The siren sighed out long and low as she stepped backward from the man’s hold and peeled her bodysuit the rest of the way down and off her slender feet.

Axton grabbed the hem of his undershirt and tugged it up over his head, ruffling his already messy blonde locks.

Maya patted the big man’s chest and grinned wryly.

“You should take your shirt off before we do this next time.” She teased tiredly.

Axton rumbled out a laugh.

“You didn’t give me a chance to take it off baby blue.” He chuckled as the siren brushed past him and reached for the shower faucets.

Maya snorted and shrugged her shoulders up.

“I’m not a patient woman.” She giggled as she stepped gracefully into the shower stream.

The water pressure was mediocre at best and only ever made it to about lukewarm, but it was a welcome sensation on the siren’s shoulders. She could feel all the dirt and grime of the week racing off her skin and running down the depths of the drain. She let loose of a long breath and tilted her head back gently. Slim fingers ran through her wet locks, streams of water dribbling off the ends of the blue tendrils.

Axton watched with gentle enthuse, his hands working off his combat pants and threadbare boxers.

“Oh I know you aren’t darlin’.” Axton chortled as he sauntered toward the small shower.

Maya offered the broad man some room and he joined her in the dingy little white tiled space.

The sandy blonde’s arms found their way around Maya’s waist, his chin resting on her shoulder in an embrace that was not exactly the norm for either of them. Most of these events did not come with soft moments afterward. But each time things morphed just a little more. Each time things were just slightly different than the last. More of the siren’s walls and the commando’s insecurities came tumbling down…and then there was room for touches like these, for embraces like these.

Maya couldn’t find it in herself to want to push him away.

It was a fragile touch, the man’s large arms tightly wrapped around her almost as if in protection.

There were no words spoken between them, the rhythmic sound of the shower water pelting the tile being the only conversation here.

Axton’s lips pressed against her ear and the siren smiled.

“Oh, so we’re doing the whole ‘cuddling afterward’ thing now?” Maya sniggered lightly.

Axton snorted.

“Dunno baby, are we?” He replied nuzzling into his partner’s neck.

“Mm, maybe. I have to admit it’s a nice change of pace from being at your throat all day.” Maya teased.

“That does turn me on something awful though darlin’.” Axton groaned squeezing her hips just slightly.

Maya turned in the big man’s grip and hung her arms over his powerful shoulders.

“I know.” She quipped with a sly grin before gently pressing her lips to his.

“I’m not complaining I kind of like this.” Axton admitted softly as he unraveled his fingers from the siren’s body and ran them through his short cropped locks.

Maya deposited a healthy amount of shampoo into her palm and lathered it through her locks before pausing to look at Axton.

“…you need some shampoo?” She asked slowly.

Axton raised an eyebrow and cocked his head.

“That’s your special shampoo, don’t waste any on me darlin’, I’ve got soap.” Axton replied with a grin.

Maya huffed and thrust the bottle into the man’s palm.

“Just take some.” She chuckled.

Axton drizzled a small amount into his hand and smiled at the siren.

“You know if I didn’t know better baby blue…I’d say you were kinda sweet on me.” He grinned.

Maya gently let the suds run down her tilted neck.

“Yeah…maybe I am big boy.” She giggled.

Maya wasn’t sure what this was or where it was going, but right then it didn’t matter. Right then all that was important was the presence of something exciting, something warm, and something genuine.

All that mattered was this pretty little secret shared between two comrades.


End file.
